CONGRESS GAME PLAN FOR ASSAM
The Congress is playing the role of a supporting cast in all the states going for polls, with the exception of Assam where it is in a direct fight against the ruling BJP. And interestingly this is one state where the Congress fancies its chances. There is much resentment against the BJP both for the CAA and the NRC, as well as for it not living up to its earlier campaign promise of giving ST status to five tribes. What the BJP has in its favour is a strong regional leadership in both Sarbananda Sonowal and Himanta Biswa Sarma, which the Congress lacks ever since the demise of ex Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi. However, the party is not giving up without a fight. Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has been made “observer” to oversee election preparations in the state. It is to be noted that he is the Congress CM with the deepest pockets at the moment. Congress general secretary, Jitender Singh Alwar, who has been given charge of the state, is also working actively on ground to stitch up a formidable five-party alliance to take on the BJP. This includes the CPM, CPI, CPI(ML), Anchalik Gana Morcha and AIUDF. Interestingly, during the last elections, AIUDF leader Maulana Badruddin Ajmal had contested alone and eaten into the anti BJP vote bank. If you recall, in 2016, the BJP won 86 of 126 seats, with close to 42% votes; while the Congress got 26 seats and the AIUDF had got 13 seats with 13% vote share. At the time it was the then BJP general secretary Ram Madhav and Sarma who had “convinced” Ajmal to contest alone. But with all things Congress the main question remains: will they once again snatch defeat from the jaws of victory?
THE QUESTION of CONGRESS PRESIDENT
Is the G23 happy with the decision taken at a recent Congress Working Committee meeting to hold elections to the post of Congress president in June? While it’s understandable that the Congress leadership wants to wait till the Assembly elections are over (one reason being that then the results do not reflect on the new incumbent) there is some confusion as to the timing of the CWC elections. This is the primary concern of the rebels for they realise that the new party president would either end up being Rahul Gandhi himself or one of his nominees. The division between those wanting a change and the Rahul-camp is very visible even in the CWC, where there was a heated exchange between Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma on one side, and Ashok Gehlot and Ambika Soni on the other. As Anand Sharma reminded Gehlot, the G23 had as much at stake and spent as many years in the Congress as the others so why were they berated every time they put across a point of view. But—whether in the Congress or the BJP—dissenters are always seen as anti-party. That’s just the way this game is played.
MESSAGE FROM THE RSS
A strong message was sent to the Narendra Modi government at the RSS meet in Ahmedabad regarding the farmers’ protests. In fact RSS No, 2, General Secretary Suresh (Bhaiyyaji) Joshi gave an interview to the Indian Express asking the government to find a middle ground, as it’s “not good for the health of a society for an agitation to run for so long”. It was after that the government came up with its offer to put the farm reform laws on hold for one and a half years. This was one offer that the farmers did not reject outright, but also didn’t seem to be in a hurry to accept. Did the government leave the peace offering for too late?